Embracing The Talent Imperative In The Semiconductor Industry

The semiconductor industry is on the cusp of remarkable growth and transformation, with India positioned to become a significant global player. The sector is witnessing unprecedented momentum with a recent Deloitte Global Report highlighting the need for the semiconductor workforce to expand by over one million skilled workers by 2030, adding more than 100,000 workers annually.

Semicon Trends In India

India is strategically placed as a key player in this industry, housing 20 per cent of the world’s semiconductor design workforce. The country’s rapidly evolving technological landscape along with an expanding domestic market create a conducive environment for developing a national semiconductor ecosystem. 

Government initiatives such as the National Electronics Policy and the USD 10 billion PLI scheme for semiconductor manufacturing are bolstering India’s chipmaking aspirations. The 2024 budget further increased allocations for the semiconductor ecosystem and established a USD 12 billion innovation corpus to incentivize Research & Development.

Tackling The Talent Gap

Despite the positive developments, the industry's growth is accompanied by a pressing need for skilled professionals. Although India has significant engineering talent, there is an employability gap, where educational curriculums often do not align with industry needs, leaving graduates unprepared for long term careers in the industry. Infrastructure challenges also play a role, as insufficient resources and training facilities restrict access to local talent pools.

Additionally, supply-demand and retention issues driven by intense competition for talent and the demanding nature of the work contribute to the hiring challenge. To bridge this gap and create access to a more sustainable workforce, the industry can look at various approaches. 

Academia Partnerships

Addressing the talent shortage begins with scaling and training talent pools across leading universities. Companies can collaborate with universities to make semiconductor programmes more appealing and relevant to students to build a talent pipeline for the future. Augmenting curriculums and instituting physical infrastructure support in the form of semiconductor labs with industry standard equipment can facilitate research and academic initiatives in chip design, technology, modelling, characterisation and product development. 

Exploring Non-Traditional Career Paths

As the industry evolves, an alternative approach to career paths is essential. Traditional career growth models often reward high-performing team members with managerial promotions. However, not all high-performing employees aspire to be managers. Recognising this, companies will need to create career paths allowing technical experts to advance without necessarily taking on managerial responsibilities. This approach helps retain top talent by providing opportunities to grow and excel in their areas of expertise.

Empower Middle Managers

Middle managers play a critical role in driving and meeting deliverables within organisations. They are key in driving and meeting deliverables but most of the time they get so occupied in executing day to day functions and administrative activities that there is no time to spend on cultivating talent. By restructuring organisations with the right structure, companies can empower middle managers with decision making guidelines that impact their teams. This can be a potential game changer in holding middle managers accountable and to be more effective. 

Skill Development

Skill development will no longer be nice to have but would be absolute necessity to remain competitive. As technology evolves and with the speed of change, there will be constant need to have newer skill adoption. While organisations have implemented skill development platforms, internally and externally, there is a huge gap in terms of incremental learning for employees. Learning has to become an integral part of every employee in addition to performing their day-to-day job. Incentivising learning, recognising learning and rewarding learning will motivate employees to extend and commit themselves better. As we build a reward summary at the end of the year, learning should become part of yearly performance and a Total Reward philosophy.

Building Talent Pipeline 

Increasingly, companies will also have to focus on active engagement of K12 students to ignite interest in technology and choose STEM focused subjects. Such initiatives and collaboration with government initiatives like ATL (Atal Tinkering Lab) will help create aspirations and skill building at an early age to equip students with essential skill sets such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity. This can empower them to thrive in a dynamic and technology-driven future.

As India’s semiconductor ecosystem starts to evolve and mature, it will require a cross section of initiatives across various stakeholders to help the industry empower its most asset in the form of a skilled workforce. Having a more strategic and creative approach while also looking at imaginative ways to enhance their existing workforce will benefit the industry in the long run.